Larson Column: Inept coaching costs Gophers signature win for Kill

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Gopher2017 said:
I will say that I was VERY impressed with our offense and Mitch throughout the majority of this game. It's just the poor play and decision making at the end that makes me and others forget how great they played at other times in the game. Had these poor decisions been made going into the half then we wouldn't be talking so much about it but because it happened at the very end and cost us the game, well, that's why we're upset and talking about it.

No, my buddy was spot on most of the time. He would even point out they type of play and which player would receive the ball. Not sure how he knew and when I asked, he said, "as a coach, I got paid to pay attention and you can get a sense of what's coming." Take it for what it's worth.
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Apparently your buddy needs to be coaching Michigan. They would've loved his insight to keep the offense under 300 yards instead of close to 500 :)

But seriously, I was simply a varsity high school coach for 10 years and even I can guess right about 75% of the time what type of play will be run. It's the EXACT nature of the play and then execution by the players that ultimately decides the outcome. Last night, the Gophers executed. If you don't "run up the middle" (as so many on this board like to say...which irritates me to no end) those long play action passes won't work. Neither will you pop the 30 yard QB runs off zone read.
 

GophersInIowa said:
They could have run 4 plays if they wanted.

1st down, spike the ball
2nd down, run the play with all the shifts and throw the ball
3rd down, run the ball, call timeout
4th down, run a play or kick a FG

All could have easily been done in those 19 seconds.
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Are u sure we had two timeouts at that point?. I thought he had to burn one earlier and only had one left at that time. You are correct though that multiple plays could have been run with better clock management.
 

I guess Tom Larson wants to start over with a new coach and a new five year plan.
Willmar can have him.
 

CentralGopher said:
Are u sure we had two timeouts at that point?. I thought he had to burn one earlier and only had one left at that time. You are correct though that multiple plays could have been run with better clock management.
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No just one timeout. In my scenario, you only need one timeout assuming the 2nd down play is an incomplete pass if they don't score.
 

Michigan was no. 2 in the nation against the run and stacked the line with their biggest, strongest guys. It was a stubborn but suicide call when we could have easily kicked the feild goal and faced their sub QB in overtime.
 


Johnny Olson said:
I guess Tom Larson wants to start over with a new coach and a new five year plan.
Willmar can have him.
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You realize the last 5 year plan has lead us to 2 five loss seasons and this season where we will have at least 4 losses?

So you want that plan's second in command to get another 5 years?
 

Some guy said:
You realize the last 5 year plan has lead us to 2 five loss seasons and this season where we will have at least 4 losses?

So you want that plan's second in command to get another 5 years?
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You forget the first number which goes before the loss column This program has produced back to back eight win seasons and a New Years Bowl game.
Who was the last Coach to do that?
I will wait for my answer.
 

Johnny Olson said:
You forget the first number which goes before the loss column This program has produced back to back eight win seasons and a New Years Bowl game.
Who was the last Coach to do that.
I will wait for my answer.
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?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 

Johnny Olson said:
You forget the first number which goes before the loss column This program has produced back to back eight win seasons and a New Years Bowl game.
Who was the last Coach to do that?
I will wait for my answer.
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As I said in another thread. If you are happy with 8-5 clearly you keep Claeys.
 



Gopher028 said:
I still believe in Claeys, however, even though his play calling was very slightly better,
i'm still not happy at all with Limey.
...Zim... (lets) a very
seasoned and proven OC run the offense, and we should be able to do that with Limey
who's done this at other levels for...20 years? But I look at this season, the play calls,
the players he's using and NOT using, and it boggles my mind.
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OH YES! Limegrover should have put up a million, trillion points against the overall number 2 defense in the nation - a defense that has shut out 3 teams and really could have had a 4th shut out but they permitted a score during garbage time. I am sure it never occurred to the coaches to run jet sweeps! I am sure that jet sweeps would have been really, really successful even though Michigan had superior speed to the edge. It is also pretty clear that Edwards, who has played perhaps a half dozen plays all year, would have been a game breaker!

Oh, and the fact that JH was very complimentary of the Gophers offence after the game saying "they had really good concepts"
among other complimentary things means nothing. What the hell does he know anyway.
 

Some guy said:
As I said in another thread. If you are happy with 8-5 clearly you keep Claeys.
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We have broken through eight wins one time in the last forty seven years.
I'm sure we can bring in an A list Coach and break that trend fairly quickly.
The top Coaches have broken down the door to come here in the past.
That goes for Basketball too.
 

Johnny Olson said:
We have broken through eight wins one time in the last forty seven years.
I'm sure we can bring in an A list Coach and break that trend fairly quickly.
The top Coaches have broken down the door to come here in the past.
That goes for Basketball too.
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Where did you learn how to count?

The gophers have had 8 win seasons 5 times in the last 20 years.
That's 25% of the time.


They were back to back 8 win seasons in 2002-2003 or 12 and 13 years ago.


They have had 5 or fewer loss seasons 7 times in the last 20 years.
 

Some guy said:
Where did you learn how to count?

The gophers have had 8 win seasons 5 times in the last 20 years.
That's 25% of the time.


They were back to back 8 win seasons in 2002-2003 or 12 and 13 years ago.


They have had 5 or fewer loss seasons 7 times in the last 20 years.
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And how many times have the Gophers broken though 8 wins in the last 40 years?
 




Some guy said:
As I said in another thread. If you are happy with 8-5 clearly you keep Claeys.
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I think the benefit buoy keep with Claeys is you won't completely start over how've the expectation is he is a continuation of the existing staff and he will not get the 7-8 years to improve
 


Section2 said:
I'm actually more excited about our future after this game. I think we can play with anyone including OSU. I hope the players feel that way. Upset either Wisconsin or OSU and beat Illinois and the season is not a total loss. Have a lot of good players coming back next year. Exciting future.
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If I got a dime every time this was posted, I could have retired 5 years ago. If your expectations are a couple of 8 win seasons I think you will be satisfied. However, until this staff can recruit a QB, we will continue to suffer these heartbreaking losses. I am not putting the blame of the loss on ml, but that is still a position where we need a consistent player.

Granted, this wasn't that heartbreaking of a loss to me as I am used to seeing coaching ineptitude when it comes to closing games against tough opponents. We have a long and glorious history of coaching ineptitude costing us games.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I do not think many people would be satisfied with a long term ceiling of 8 wins.

Who will come in and be the White Knight, Mark Trestman? (sarcasm alert)
 

There is actually only two major mistakes by the coaches.

1) Benching Mortell for a crucial endzone punt.
2) Fine, you want to try to trick them... well then spike the ball and be cute without time running.
 

Johnny Olson said:
I do not think many people would be satisfied with a long term ceiling of 8 wins.

Who will come in and be the White Knight, Mark Trestman?
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He could bring in Ratliff to show players what a captain is really about

As a head coach, trestman is a fail
 

I heard a story about Trestman while in Chi. Apparently a player on his team threw a fit and started throwing things (equipment, etc.) around the locker room. Trestman made him captain the next game for "showing fire". Yep, sounds like a heck of a leader. His career is done.
 

GO4INLALALAND said:
If I got a dime every time this was posted, I could have retired 5 years ago. If your expectations are a couple of 8 win seasons I think you will be satisfied. However, until this staff can recruit a QB, we will continue to suffer these heartbreaking losses. I am not putting the blame of the loss on ml, but that is still a position where we need a consistent player.

Granted, this wasn't that heartbreaking of a loss to me as I am used to seeing coaching ineptitude when it comes to closing games against tough opponents. We have a long and glorious history of coaching ineptitude costing us games.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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My expectations are big ten championships. This is a program still being built. You can argue that shouldn't be the case after 5 years, but it is where we are. If we were undefeated and contenders this year, that loss would have been a true gut punch with no positives.

People are right to call out claeys and staff. But was this any worse than Rutgers spiking on 4th down? Wisconsins blown clock spike against AZ?

I don't understand why you bring up the qb. That really ruins your point.
 

Gopher2017 said:
I will say that I was VERY impressed with our offense and Mitch throughout the majority of this game. It's just the poor play and decision making at the end that makes me and others forget how great they played at other times in the game. Had these poor decisions been made going into the half then we wouldn't be talking so much about it but because it happened at the very end and cost us the game, well, that's why we're upset and talking about it.

No, my buddy was spot on most of the time. He would even point out they type of play and which player would receive the ball. Not sure how he knew and when I asked, he said, "as a coach, I got paid to pay attention and you can get a sense of what's coming." Take it for what it's worth.
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Since you brought it up, I thought the decision making at the end of the 1st half was highly suspect. There was plenty of time, we were on the Michigan 17 yard line, and we had time for two or three more plays where we could have come away with more than a field goal. If you want to win you have to go get it.
 

Spoofin said:
I heard a story about Trestman while in Chi. Apparently a player on his team threw a fit and started throwing things (equipment, etc.) around the locker room. Trestman made him captain the next game for "showing fire". Yep, sounds like a heck of a leader. His career is done.
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that was ratliff. on his way out if Chicago last week ratliff said he wanted to kill everybody in the building - hence the police escort
 

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